Trip to Eriskay, Uist and York

As you can probably tell, I’m just catching up on all that has happened recently. We recently took a trip to Eriskay to continue our mapping of archives throughout the Western Isles. Eriskay Historical Society were gearing up for their ‘On the Rocks’ festival and we prepared a small pop up exhibition for them to display during the festival and for a few weeks of the summer.

Booklet about Fr Allan MacDonald written by John Lorne Campbell given to Donald MacDonald, Tolsta, Lewis, found is his collection of personal papers at the Tasglann

The exhibition included vintage postcards from the Western Isles Library service collection and extracts from the Eriskay Public School logbooks from 1905 when Fr Allan MacDonald died.

Postcard of Haun, Eriskay looking towards South Uist, part of the Western Isles Library postcard collection

This was my first pop up exhibition and I used digital reproductions of the postcards so the public could see them but it also means the originals are kept safe from light, dirt and handling. It might not be the same as seeing the real thing but the originals are too rare and fragile to have on a display that doesn’t have the right environment controls such as lighting, temperature and humidity.

Beinn mhoir, Helca and Corrodail, South Uist

After setting up the exhibition, I had to travel all the way from Uist to York in England. It was a long trip but well worth it. I arrived during their heatwave and found myself in 27 degree heat which I am not used to. Luckily the weather changed and it got a bit cooler.

Blue skies above Clifford Tower, York

The first day of training was Archival Description, all about learning how to catalogue a collection. Some might think that there is no system to cataloguing and that you just list everything you find in a box but it’s not as simple as that. You learn first of all about the fonds, the root of the collections. In most cases the organisation or individual that created the collection. Then you learn to identify the series of records under the fonds and then the records types that fall under that category. The other thing you learn also is to not disturb the order the collection comes to you. There may be a reason why it is in a certain order. Other times it might be a jumble but it is only then that an archivist might try to organise the material so that they can catalogue it.

How to describe archives, taken from the handbook of the training course from The Archive Skills Consultancy

Why do we catalogue? This is for the end users, our researchers, whoever turns up on at the archive looking for an answer to a question. Through cataloguing we can help find the answer to that question or at least know the source of where the answer might come from. We are currently dealing with 30 enquiries a month which require a fair amount of research and a good catalogue can limit the time it takes to find the answer. So this training is extremely useful as part of my work at the Tasglann.

After day one, I took a walk around historic York. The city is full of history and an amazing award-winning high street. Below are just some of the sights I saw.

York Minster

Tudor buildings in York high street

The second day of training involved the ‘Building Blocks of Records Management’. Records Management is the step before archives. In this day and age, we create so many records of different types and now they are not only paper based but digital too. How do you manage it all so you only keep what is relevant and destroy or delete what isn’t? Learning about this step has been useful in knowing what should come to an archive, especially a local authority archive once the use of the record is finished.

My notes on the life-cycle of a record, what happens when the record dies, is it for the archive or for disposal?

The last 9 months as a trainee has been an amazing opportunity, learning, and training, gaining new skills, knowledge and experience. Time is marching on and I have a only two months left of my traineeship and I hope to continue on my path to become an archivist. The training I have received will definitely help me with that.